Good evening and welcome back to the blog. Shaping up to be one of those weeks ~ now the cat of the household is not well which I’ll confess usually has me at sixes and sevens more than if one of the kids isn’t well (harsh but true). Vet bills can rapidly become very difficult decisions and ones I usually side with via giving the cat every treatment possible, hopefully it will be nothing too serious. I’ve got a pretty nasty Clash Blog back log of information to get through and under this scenario I roll out Westway Traffic so we can get at least four of five things covered. So let’s jump into that, as ever for extra information click on the red text:

NME Celebrates The Clash in print and online: As discussed last week this week’s NME has a special pull out section exclusively dedicated to the Clash. Thanks to a kind reader of the blog one is on the way to me here in Phoenix. If you’re in the UK pop out and buy yourself a copy. Online the NME runs through a celebrity playlist of favourite Clash songs, so click the link to find out what Paul Weller, Thurston Moore and Steve Diggle amongst others consider their favourite Clash track. As part of the same feature the NME also interviews various bands about the impact of The Clash on their own music and careers. Worth a read!

“When I was 17, I saw [former Factory Records supremo] Tony Wilson doing this TV show full of footage from his So It Goes programme. It showed some footage of The Clash in Manchester doing ‘What’s My Name’ and ‘Garageland’ and Joe Strummer looked absolutely fucking amazing” James Dean Bradfield – Manic Street Preachers

MP3 Links for Sandinista! era outtakes and demos: Handy to have these all in one place for some of you I’d hope. MP3 links for Midnight To Stevens, Every Little Bit Hurts, Louie Louie, King of The Road and Blonde Rock n Roll.

DVD Review(s) – Don Lett’s Strummerville film: Official review from the usually fair and reasonable people over at Uncut magazine in the UK. Don’t forget you can still purchase the DVD via the Strummerville site.

Joe Strummer Mural in Peru: Been a long time since I posted this so its back by popular demand if you’ve joined the blog in the last six months or so. This video clip shows the making of another Joe Strummer mural on the roof of a building in Peru. Buen trabajo!!

Another point for Texas! Strummer Birthday event in Austin: Brick by brick, ranch by ranch I’m beginning to see that Texas still has a good hardcore of people that appreciate The Clash and in turn good people of course. I love having my opinion changed so (10 gallon) hats off to the lonestar state for continuing to prove me wrong (and thanks for visiting the blog). The great city of Austin will celebrate the anniversary of Joe’s birth on Aug 21 at a club/bar called Red 7, entry just $5. If you happen to be local I hope you can attend, info via the link and image to the right.

Reminder – Early Joe Strummer Tribute night Aug 7th, Ann Arbor Michigan: A couple of weeks early but mentioned on a prior post somewhere. If you live in the Detroit area please try and make a trip out to The Blind Pig, 208 S First St. Ann Arbor, MI. If you go take some pictures and get in touch.

Right that should keep you busy, I’m tired tonight but will try and get another post in the morning compiled. Any questions or ideas or particular worries – Get in touch. Cheers for coming by.

Well looks like its time again to type some thoughts and welcome you back to the Clash Blog. First time here? We don’t bite and welcome comments and suggestions to help make the site essentially an ongoing fanzine-like resource for all things Clash related. If you are a returning visitor thanks for your time and spending it with me. I still don’t have my Clash license plate…but I did visit the Motor Vehicle place today and they eventually told me not to worry as the computers and thus a cop will know I’m legal. I thought that a brave pronouncement but I guess I’ll need to trust them against my better judgement. Telling a Phoenix cop that a little old lady with a New England accent told me not to worry about my expired (non-Clash!) plate might not wash however, especially as I can’t fool anyone with my bad American accent. Whenever I do it I sound like a radio DJ about to tell you about the weather and introduce some Pearl Jam (yes…that is how all American men sound to my ears).

Speaking of accents I’m on the cusp of purchasing some software that might make my writing and therefore much of my life up to ’3 times more efficient’, no it’s not more coffee or amphetamines, but new and apparently vastly better voice recognition/dictation software that would allow me to blog just by speaking to my computer. It’s very tempting and under serious consideration as between this blog and others that I write for work I routinely bash out around 10,000 words a week and the thought of time saved is very tempting. I would like a demo of the software first as I’m concerned that my accent might not mesh well with the technology plus I’ll have to go back and fix the incorrect spelling of color, honor, tire every time I write for this blog. Another part of my decision is the fact that I intend to start another personal blog in the near future and the thought of getting free form out in a third of the time would help me no end.  Stay tuned, if you suddenly see posts 2 or 3 times a day you’ll know I’ve taken the plunge. I should also state I’m essentially an advanced hunt and peck typist so although this doesn’t take you long to read it takes me a while to type, if I could just have the page fill as quickly as I speak we’d be in for some real content on this site at last!!

I had sat down with the premise of writing briefly about Joe Strummer’s birthday later this month and also some updates worth checking upon at the Strummerville site. So why I don’t get on with that then? August 21st is the day in question and Joe would have turned 58 this year if he was still with us, which actually rubs some salt into the wound at the thought that he was but 50 when we lost him in 2000. Currently the two notable tribute events that I am aware of are in Sydney and San Francisco though I’m hoping as we get nearer the date we’ll learn of some more things that are going on. (Pete I got your email thank you and I’d love your help/ideas to chronicle the day in London). If you are associated with or aware of an event near wherever you may be please get in touch so that I can share the details with the community. Any city, any country – a celebration of Joe’s life is what is at stake. I’ll furnish more info on the aforementioned events as we get nearer to the date. On the facebook side I’ve invited (but need to remind everyone) of an event scheduled for the 21st where we ask everyone to change their facebook status for the entire day to a Joe quote or lyric of your preference. It would be nice that everyone of your facebook friends knows what you’re up to – so perhaps for example make your status:

“I’m the all night drug prowling wolf”   Joe Strummer’s Birthday Aug 21 , 1952

Please checkout the facebook page for the event via this link, your participation would be really nice. Yes I’ll remind you! Another goal I had for Joe’s Birthday was getting to 1,000 people in our facebook gang and then declaring our independence from the brutal democracies (or otherwise) that we live under. Looks like we’ll make the first goal with days to spare which is exciting to me and thanks everyone for spreading the word. I’m going to then type up some informal announcement about it and ask if the good people at Strummerville could get the information over to Joe’s widow Lucinda. Just an email or something to let her know we are collectively paying a nod to Joe/The Clash on a daily basis if she’d ever like to drop by.

Strummerville was the other point of my incessant rambling this evening as there are a lot of cool updates over on their website that I’d like to encourage you to visit. So in no special order here are some new things on tap:

The end of August always marks the Notting Hill Carnival in London and Strummerville are hosting a special party on Aug 29th at The Inn on The Green during Carnival weekend. For just 5 pounds a wristband lets you see 4 acts from 6pm on the night. Wristbands and full details via the link. The very new Strummerville documentary is set to make its television debut in the UK on Sunday Aug 22nd on SKY Arts. Full details via this link, and while we get far too many channels in the States we don’t get stuff like this in any sort of a timely fashion. Finally a second small plug for a Strummerville act ‘Rum Shebeen’ the video which we featured about a week ago. Both videos from a new double A side single are featured over on the site.

That will be me done for the evening, more tomorrow I’m sure and don’t forget to let me know if you plan something for Aug 21st. Thanks ~

One of these days I’ll definitely get together a definitive list of Clash related reading material (let’s go ahead and call them books) for the site. I don’t think I’ve read everything on the market myself yet but I think a buyers guide might be useful and informative. With your help we may even uncover some gems that I didn’t know about. There have been shelves of books already written about the birth of the English punk scene in 1976 and of course the genetic links that the English origins hold to New York or elsewhere. When I say elsewhere I’m thinking The Saints who were from Australia and arguably were the earliest purveyors of what was to sound like British punk rock. While I’ve read many (but not all) books written about The Clash I’ve not done more than skim the surface of books that look at the entire scene. Naturally enough many of those devote many chapters and ratios of their contents to discussing The Clash and the part they played on the scene. If you’ve read some or many of those books get in touch if you’d like to help put together an unofficial guide to them for the site as a future project.

For my money I’d still recommend that every Clash library begins with at least two books and if I had to narrow it down I’d first go with the Bob Gruen book which is of course primarily photographs but my goodness such photography. Page after page of fantastic imagery that owes as much to the undeniable talents of Gruen as it does his extremely warm relationship with the band. There are so many moments where he catches the band just hanging out like mates or an urban gang that you realise another photographer wouldn’t have been able to capture. Check it out if you don’t have it – the link for Amazon in the US is here or the UK is here. The price is about the same for both as both currencies continue to plummet to oblivion in an exchange rate equivalent of West Ham against Bolton Wanderers.

The other book I just can’t stop reading and enjoying each time through is the very detailed and emotive work Chris Salewicz and his fairly recent biograpy of Joe Strummer – Redemption Song. A riveting work that I keep finding excuses to read again as each time I open the pages I feel like I am transformed to a specific moment in the evolution of John Mellor to Joe Strummer and The Clash from West London nobodies to globally famous. Equally meritorious is Salewicz’ ability to bring light and definition to Strummer’s childhood and equally fascinating his life and career after The Clash. You almost have to roll your chair back when you appreciate that  period covers some 25 years and saw Strummer acting, writing, and performing in a number of guises. Speaking of Chris Salewicz I just picked up his new book about Bob Marley which I’ll get started on in the weeks ahead, here’s a link to a really good interview with the author in the Houston Press about “Bob Marley-The Untold Story”. More info on Chris’ official site.

Extract from 'Redemption Song' courtesy Chris Salewicz

In the weeks ahead I’ll compile a list of all books I can uncover that relate to The Clash and perhaps draw on you the reader for your collective knowledge, especially for the titles I mentioned above. Not much news from the desert for you – trying to determine just how near to the stage do I need to be for Gorillaz and justify the expense. Once you are more than a dozen rows back does it make much difference, or will I rely on the video screens? I don’t do 5,000 seat venues as a matter of course…..

Thanks for dropping by as always. Tim